The present invention relates to a new and improved construction of cartridge feed or infeed system for automatic weapons or guns and which is of the type comprising an endless chain for the conveying and storage of the cartridges and having an outfeed mechanism for outfeeding the cartridges by means of the movement of the chain.
In U.S. Pat. No. 2,489,428 there is taught a known cartridge feed system of this type wherein the outfeed mechanism consists of strippers arranged transversely with respect to the chain and which protrude into the path of travel of the cartridges which for purposes of firing the same are always conveyed in the same direction. These strippers are fixedly mounted. If, for instance, it is desired to infeed to the gun two different types of ammunition, then it is necessary to either know ahead of time the exact sequence in which there are required the different cartridges, or it is necessary to initially fire cartridges of the first type, in order to then be able to fire cartridges of the second type.
In German patent publication No. 25 01 425 there is disclosed a projectile feed system where it is possible to store different types of ammunition at a chain and to infeed such to the weapon. However, this feed system is only suitable for infeeding ammunition to a gun operating at a low cadence, since the transfer of the ammunition to the weapon can only be accomplished when the chain is stationary.